Full of great advice from fixing your water supply, locating incidents in your area to ensuring that your home is winter ready.

In this section…

Help & Advice - Household

We always try our best to ensure that the whole of Yorkshire is provided with clean drinking water 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Unfortunately there may be times when problems occur with our water network.

We've put together a series of 'how to' guides, so whether you have no water or low pressure, a leak on your supply, discoloured water, frozen pipes, or just want some advice on flooding issues, then you've come to the right place!

No water or low pressure?

Discoloured water

Although discoloured water is unlikely to have any health implications, we understand how it can be very unappealing to drink. Follow our advice to see what you can do when experiencing short-term discolouration.

1. Run the tap which is fed first from your water supply for several minutes (this will usually be your kitchen tap).
2. Fill a jug and leave it to stand until any sediment has settled to the bottom.
3. Pour the clean water from the top of the jug for use.

Discoloured water could also be caused by flushing work we're carrying out to our water pipes across the region. You may have received a letter or text message advising of flushing work in your area. For more information on this work, please see the below video.

Yorkshire Water YouTube Channel

Pipe cleaning

Cloudy or milky water

Water can appear cloudy or milky if air mixes with the supply. If water containing air is allowed to stand for a few minutes in a glass, the water will clear from the bottom of the glass upwards as the air bubbles rise to the surface.

There's no risk to health associated with aerated water, it just looks different.

Chlorine taste / smell

Sometimes customers notice a distinctive taste (described as ‘medicinal’, ‘disinfectant’, ‘swimming pool’ or ‘TCP-like’) to their drinking water that’s often most noticeable in boiled drinks such as tea and coffee. Chlorine is removed by boiling so these tastes are not directly due to chlorine.

This taste is likely to be caused by rubber and plastic materials used in domestic appliances and fittings. These plastic fittings include kettle gaskets and seals, tap washers and hoses fitted to the inlet of washing machines and dishwashers. The taste doesn’t come from the water pipes but is formed within properties.

These plastic and rubber materials contain ‘phenols’ and related substances which can cause unpleasant tastes or smells. And, low levels of chlorine may react with these chemicals to produce other taste-causing substances.

Although these substances can cause unpleasant tastes in hot drinks at very low levels (parts per trillion in some cases), they are not harmful to
health at the levels normally detected.

Earthy and musty tastes and smells

These kinds of taste or smells can be due to the growth of harmless micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi in domestic pipework, particularly sections that can have a low usage or can get warm (when hot pipes come into contact with cold pipes). Valves and fittings
containing rubber materials are also particularly prone to these growths.

If this happens, you can fix the problem by making sure the hot and cold pipes don’t touch. For sections of pipes that aren’t used as often, you should run the water to bring fresh water in. All materials used for plumbing should be WRAS-approved wras.co.uk.

Sometimes, earthy or musty taste and smells are caused by very low amounts of naturally occurring substances released by algae growing in raw water reservoirs. These substances are not normally thought to be dangerous to health at the concentrations at which they are found. We make sure that our water treatment works reduce these substances as far as possible and we carry out daily checks on the smell of the raw and treated water.

Petrol and diesel tastes and smells

These one-off smells can be caused by a spillage of fuel near a plastic supply pipe. These substances can, over time, pass through the plastic pipes and result in changes to taste or smell.

We’ll always investigate these reports quickly to find the exact cause and offer advice on how to deal with the problem.

Bitter tastes and smells

A metallic or bitter taste can often be due to water standing in a metal pipe (for example a copper pipe) for several hours or more. Try dealing with these types of taste or smells by flushing the tap for several minutes to bring fresh water into the property. If this doesn’t help, please call us so we can investigate.

@YWHelp

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Drinking water quality

In this section you can find out what's happening in your local area. Check the weather, get ahead of roadworks or look for fun things to do in your spare time.

See what helpful advice you can read about your drinking water and the waste water services we provide. You can also see whether it's worthwhile installing a water meter; solve common water related problems around your home, or simply see how to get in touch with us.

What can you find out?

We're cutting down on the amount of water lost through leaks on our network, and are planning to drive down leakage to 10 million litres per day to ensure we maintain the balance between supply and demand.

Find out more to check what information you need to hand when reporting a leak by taking a look at our report a leak page.

Spotted a leak?

0800 57 35 53

The cold weather can be a nightmare for your home with cold snaps freezing or bursting your pipes. Take a look at our winter ready section to read all our handy hints and tips for making sure that you're ready for whatever this winter brings!